


Adventures in Thirteen's TARDIS

by Siempie



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Graham is Dad Friend, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Short Stories, i don't have the attention span for a really long thing so here u go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 21:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13490460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siempie/pseuds/Siempie
Summary: Short stories about the Thirteenth Doctor and friends. Written before S11 aired, so everyone will likely be horribly out of character.





	Adventures in Thirteen's TARDIS

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings:  
> Graphic description of injury  
> Description of a panic attack

* * *

Crashing through a roof was a lot more painful than people made it out to be.

Regeneration energy bubbled under the Doctor's skin, closing cuts and mending bones. A weird groaning noise escaped from his/her/their chest as his/her/their collapsed lung re-inflated like a kid's balloon.

He/she/they could hear footsteps as the ringing in his/her/their ears subsided and feeling returned to his/her/their legs as his/her/their crushed spine mended itself.

He/she/they had just climbed out of the rubble when a door opened, and a man stared back at him/her/them. They stared at one another in silence for a good twenty seconds, until the Doctor felt like he/she/they should probably say something.

"...I think I broke your roof... Sorry..."

Then his/her/their vision went dark, and he/she/they barely noticed the man catching him/her/them before he/she/they lost consciousness.

* * *

The man was named Graham, and he was very confused. But he didn't ask questions. Instead, he carried the Doctor down the stairs, tucked him/her/them in the guest room's bed, then went to call an ambulance.

The Doctor woke up, told him not to take him/her/them to a hospital under ANY circumstances, went on a tangent about biology and death and never doing _that_ again, then fell back asleep.

So Graham, who was still very confused, called his insurance company instead.

* * *

Graham took care of the Doctor, which was not something he/she/they was/were used to.

He nodded and said "okay" when she chose a new set of pronouns and didn't ask when she coughed up clouds of golden energy.

He helped her out of the dirty rags that remained of her clothes and closed his eyes as she changed into a nightgown his daughter had left behind in the house.

He told her that she wasn't making a lick of sense as she talked and talked and talked but he listened anyway.

He put cool washcloths on her forehead when her temperature spiked, and dimmed the lights as a terrible headache drove into her skull like a white hot pin.

He made breakfast as the sun came up and her fever broke. He fell asleep at the table, making her feel slightly guilty for having him stay up all night with her.

She made to leave, but then stopped herself. Graham was really nice, but still confused. She reckoned he'd want some answers.

* * *

Someone came by to fix the roof. Graham asked a lot of questions. The Doctor answered most of them.

That evening, he helped her find her TARDIS.

She asked him to stay with her.

He accepted immediately.

* * *

Yasmin and Ryan were younger than Graham, so they were immediately taken under his wing. Ryan was just fine with that. Yasmin... less so.

"It's bloody cold out."

"Graham, I've already got hoodie, a winter coat and the Doctor's twenty foot scarf. I'm _fine_."

"Your head cools off fastest, just put on the hat!"

"Do you want me to die of _heatstroke?!"_

The Doctor tried to butt in by saying that they weren't going to be outside for long and that Yasmin would be fine without a hat.

That turned out to be a mistake, as Graham decided that the Doctor's clothes looked too cold for the climate as well and that SHE should wear the hat instead.

* * *

She couldn't breathe.

Rassilon was standing right in front of her, an army at his back and murder in his eyes, and she was frozen, weightless, her feet fused with the metal grating, the air around her like syrup, and she couldn't breathe!

A hand slipped in hers. Ryan squeezed her hand, murmured something in her ear, telling her to breathe with him. She slowly sucked in breath after wheezing breath, feeling her panic attack subside.

"So this is what the almighty Doctor has become," Rassilon sneered. "Terrified, clinging to humans for guidance."

The Doctor took another deep breath, smiled at Ryan, then turned back to Rassilon.

"I haven't become anythin'," she said, her voice shaking. "The humans I've had with me have supported me more than the Time Lords ever have. And just 'cause I'm scared doesn't mean I'm any less than I was before!"

Ryan squeezed her hand again.

"Fear is a sign that you've lost, Doctor," Rassilon said. "Face it. I have an army, you have nothing."

The Doctor shoved her fear back to the bottom of her psyche, allowing a confident smirk to creep onto her face.

"Not entirely," she said. "I don't have weapons, sure. But I do have somethin' else."

She dug something out of her pocket.

"A screwdriver."

She grabbed Ryan by the hand and dragged him to the cellblocks while Rassilon's entire army screamed and writhed, their earpieces emitting a loud screech none of them could handle.

* * *

Yasmin was making hot chocolate. The entire TARDIS smelled like it.

The Doctor sat sandwiched between Graham and Ryan, their legs dangling out of the TARDIS's doors. Deep space was cold and the atmospheric shield could only do so much, so Graham had dug up a blanket and wrapped it around the three of them.

"So, who was that?" Ryan asked.

The Doctor sighed, leaning against Graham.

"Rassilon. He's another Time Lord."

"And he wants you dead?"

"Lots of people want me dead."

"Not what I meant."

She kicked her legs, watching the tail-end of her coat weightlessly float around them.

"He used to be Lord President of Gallifrey, and he's one of the creators of the Time Lord-society. History painted him as a noble and good leader, but he was really a corrupt and selfish bastard. I found that out the hard way," she said, picking at the knees of her trousers. "He locked me in my own personal hell for billions of years, tryin' to torture me into givin' him the information he wanted."

She felt Graham's arms wrap around her, his chin resting on top of her head.

"Did you give him the info?" Ryan asked quietly.

"'Course not," the Doctor scoffed, glancing over at him. "I escaped, got his military to rebel against him and kicked him off Gallifrey in a peaceful coup. So now he hates me even more."

Graham's hug tightened, and Ryan leaned against the Doctor's other side. They sat in silence for a bit.

"You're kind of a badass," Ryan suddenly said. "You know that, right?"

The Doctor chuckled. "It's been said, yeah."

"Oi!" Yasmin shouted from the hallway. "You kids done with your cuddle-fest? Your chocolate's getting cold!"

Walking with three people under the same blanket was more complicated than it looked, but they managed to pull it off anyway. Fitting a fourth into the pile proved to be much easier sitting down.

* * *

The four of them sprinted back to the TARDIS, an angry mob on their heels. As the doors slammed shut behind them and the ship dematerialized, Yasmin and Ryan's laughter filled the console room.

Graham told them to stop, that it wasn't funny, but the Doctor could hear the laughter in his voice as well. She grinned brightly as well.

Maybe coming to the '50s wasn't such a good idea after all. But seeing Graham punch a racist arsehole in the face had been the best thing she'd seen all day.

* * *

"No."

"Why not?!"

"Because you're going to get yourselves killed!"

"Graham, you're not our dad," Yasmin grumbled.

"I might as well be! Going swimming in an active geyser?! How old ARE you?!"

"Twenty-four."

"Two-thousand-one-hundred and fifty-three."

Stunned silence.

The Doctor looked around. "What?"

Graham breathed out heavily. "Didn't expect that one..."

Yasmin looked back at Graham with a cheeky grin. "The Doctor's older than you. That means she's in charge, right?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Why not?!"

"Because she's the one who proposed swimming in an ACTIVE GEYSER!"

* * *

Hysterical laughter filled the console room as the Doctor buried her face in her hands in embarrassment.

She had accidentally called Graham "Dad".

Yasmin and Ryan would never let her hear the end of this one...

* * *

"Hey, Graham?"

"Mm?"

"I'd be proud, y'know?"

"Of what?"

"If you were my dad."

That marked the first and only time the Doctor had ever seen Graham choke up.

* * *

"Oh, this is..."

"What?"

The Doctor grinned widely. "This is brilliant!"

The other Doctor stared back, looking very confused. His mouth opened and closed without sound escaping.

"Look at you!" the Doctor gasped, standing on her toes to ruffle her former self's hair. "All pinstripes and fancy gadgets and... Oh, I'm lovin' this!"

"...who are you?"

"Oh, you know who I am. Matchstick Man."

The other Doctor's eyes widened even further, confusion morphing into mildly horrified understanding.

"You're... You're me? You're the next one?"

"Well, not the next one. Bit further down the line."

His hand combed through his hair as he exhaled deeply. "Blimey," he muttered, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I'm gonna be a girl."

"Yup. Not as bad as they make it out to be. Quite brilliant, actually."

"And short!"

"...yeah, thanks for pointing that out."

Silence.

"I like the coat."

"Knew you would. I got the idea from you, y'know?"

"Doctor?!" Graham's voice was muffled from behind the door. "Who's that? Who are you talking to?"

"Myself!" both Doctors answered at once. They made eye-contact again, sharing a self-satisfied grin.

"...sorry, what?"

The Doctor sighed, rubbing at her neck. "You wanna go explain this to him?"

The other Doctor wordlessly offered her his arm.


End file.
